Current Visiting
Fellows in Residence
Christa
Velasquez is a
visiting fellow with the Initiative for Responsible
Investment working on the integration of industry
networks More for Mission and the PRI Makers Network,
impact investing advocacy and policy, and the
development of social impact bonds. For the past nine
years Velasquez was the director of social investments
at the Annie E. Casey Foundation where she was
responsible for managing the foundation’s $125 million
social investment fund. In addition to the investment
portfolio, she helped develop the impact investing
field and was a co- founder of the More for Mission
Campaign and the PRI Makers Network. Prior to joining
the Foundation, she spent six years at the consulting
firm Brody-Weiser-Burns, specializing in social
investing, community development finance and business
planning for social enterprises. She received a BA in
Latin American studies from the University of Chicago
and an MBA from the Yale School of Management.
Jay Youngdahl
is a visiting fellow with the
Initiative for Responsible Investment and a partner in the
Houston-based law firm, Youngdahl & Citti, P.C. For
over thirty years he has served as fund counsel to a number
of Taft-Hartley employee benefit funds, and is retained to
provide expert legal opinions to public and private funds.
Since 2007 he has served as an independent trustee of the
Middletown Works Hourly and Salaried Union Health Care Fund
(VEBA). Youngdahl has written a number of pieces on the
issue of responsible investment and the role of trustees in
such efforts. Presently, he is active with the IRI’s
Trustee Leadership Forum for Retirement Security. He is a
fellow with the College of Labor and Employment Law and
holds a BS from the University of Houston, a JD from the
University of Texas at Austin, an MA from St. John’s
College, and a MDiv from Harvard University.
